DIY CO2 disaster - yeast in my tank! :(

S

spinjector

AC Members
Jan 24, 2005
81
0
0
Hello everyone,

I recently had a disaster that crashed my whole tank and killed at least 40 fish. My cat tipped over my 2 liter DIY CO2 bottle and the gas pressure forced the yeast/sugar mixture into the tank.

Oh my god what an awful horrible terrible disgusting mess....!!! :sad:

It was a roller coaster of water changes for 3 days and I eventually had to net the survivors into a bucket and tear down the tank and bleach everything, including the plants. There was a white particulate haze in the water that wouldnt go away, the lower regions of the tank had a cloudy slime all over everything, and the gravel got plugged up and the powerhead konked out twice!!!

Well the survivors - both fish and plants - are back in the tank, and ok but still not doing well. Ammonia is up and oxygen is down, even using a big scoop of gravel from another tank, and the venturi on the pwerhead wide open. I haven't cycled a tank cold turkey like this for a while; I usually use plants and gravel from my other tanks, but this time just some of the gravel.

My question is this:

I think I'm still infected with yeast. HOW DO I KILL THIS STUFF...!?!?! Sheesh it's just Fleischman's Bread Yeast from the grocery store,why is it so tough to kill?? :confused:

If it will help, and/or anyone is interested in the whole horror story, I originally posted for help about it in the Uniquaria newsgroup on Yahoo here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UniQuaria/message/84280

Thanks.
 
omg.. i cant believe that happened. you know why? cause it happened to me too exactly the same way.. my dang kitten knocked over a 2liter, everything looked fine, went to bed. next morning entire tank was white/covered with slime. i was devastated and almost considered giving up on the ole 55gal. after getting my head straight i started draining the tank.. as the water level got lower and lower i heard a small splash.. after seeing some of my favorite fish dead i was super excited to find a few still alive. it really is as much of a disgusting mess as you mentioned. *everything* had to be cleaned and cleaned some more. i definitely feel your pain in this situation. what I did was open a nearby window, pumped fresh water into the tank from a hose and used a clear hose with about a 1 1/2 inch diameter and sucked water out.. did that for quite awhile and got all the nastiness out of my sand substrate. everything is back in working order now but man. immediately after that I rigged up a "basket" made from metal hangers and they hold my c02 bottles behind my tank and out of the way/sight.
 
Bleach should kill the yeast. In college, before I was a good boy, a roomie and I used to make our own beer. We always sterilized bottles in a bathtub with bleach to kill off any odd nasties, including the yeast from the previous batch of beer.
 
Yeah, cats are no good! :D

I've done the same, but on a much smaller scale, except that it was my own fault.

The key is not to overreact. In all the bleaching you probably killed off your filter bacteria. All it takes is water changes and lots of 'em. Back to back 50% water changes. Just be tenacious about it. Do 2-3 back to back 50% changes in the morning, then a couple more at night. Keep it up for a few days, all the while scrubbing off any yeast you find settled on plants, decos, rocks, etc. before the water change.

For prevention try to put the bottle somewhere your cat can't get.
 
hey spin talked with you in chat room last night, looks like some of these guys have some good ideas! check um out and goodluck with that :eek:
 
After hearing the DIY horror stories I added a second empty bottle between the generator and the tank.
Sorry about your fish, really annoying to lose them like that.
 
Ok looks like the yeast is under control now. I guess that initial cloudiness was just the usual variety. The water has cleared up a lot now. The only problem is after bleaching everything, I of course killed my gravel bed. I have one of those Seachem Ammonia-Lert badges that I have been monitoring and I am glad I have it. My ammonia is 8.0 ppm right now..! :eek: Thank goodness for Ammo-Lock..! :cool: I have been using Bio-Zyme daily, and nitrite levels are starting to swing up, so hopefully it won't be long before the gravel bed is happy again.
 
Looks like you got it handled, but good-luck, and hey don't knock the cats, lol!
 
You really need another pop bottle in the middle to catch any of the yeast liquid. It definately would have saved you a lot of problems. The trouble with yeast is that it doesn't go away easily and likes to multiply. But its good that you seem to have it under control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom